First time author, Adib Khorram takes his readers to the sights, sounds, and people of Iran. A country, in my own opinion that has had a reputation as a dangerous territory.

After reading this book however, I was left awestruck by its wild beauty, rich culture, historic and picturesque architecture.

In this book, we meet Darius, a product of a mixed-race marriage who can’t seem to find his purchase in the world in which he grew up. His dad might be as White as they come, but his features are pure Persian. He’s an awkward, quiet teenager who finds himself a target among his peers. So when his parents announced that his family was headed to Iran for three weeks, he welcomed the opportunity to find refuge from his life in America.

In Iran, he’d hoped to garner some closeness to his grandparents, especially his grandfather whose illness had taken for the worse. He also wanted to learn about his mom’s Motherland, her people, their relatives, and soak up traditions and culture. In the hopes that he’d learn to understand why he’s never felt comfortable in his own person and why he’ll always feel like the outsider no matter where he is.

He finds more than he bargained for in Iran. He, too, was taken in by the beauty of the country; the warmth and acceptance of his people, and most of all, a step towards understanding the only thing he seemed to have in common with his father: depression. Both take medications in precise synchronicity. Darius, for the most part, gets along with his dad. They have the same affinity for Star Trek. And yet, they seemed miles apart when it matters.

Darius has never been able to get along with his peers. So finding friendship in the least likely places confounded him the most.

The thing is, I never had a friend like Sohrab before. One who understood me without even trying. Who knew what it was like to be stuck on the outside because of one little thing that set you apart.

This book is about belonging. It’s about finding your place in the world no matter where you are. It’s being comfortable in your true self, and understanding that you’ll only be happy once you accept that you can never be what people tell you who you should be.

Henry Page has never been in love. He fancies himself a hopeless romantic, but the slo-mo, heart palpitating, can’t-eat-can’t-sleep kind of love that he’s been hoping for just hasn’t been in the cards for him—at least not yet. Instead, he’s been happy to focus on his grades, on getting into a semi-decent college and finally becoming editor of his school newspaper. Then Grace Town walks into his first period class on the third Tuesday of senior year and he knows everything’s about to change.

Grace isn’t who Henry pictured as his dream girl—she walks with a cane, wears oversized boys’ clothes, and rarely seems to shower. But when Grace and Henry are both chosen to edit the school paper, he quickly finds himself falling for her. It’s obvious there’s something broken about Grace, but it seems to make her even more beautiful to Henry, and he wants nothing more than to help her put the pieces back together again. And yet, this isn’t your average story of boy meets girl. Krystal Sutherland’s brilliant debut is equal parts wit and heartbreak, a potent reminder of the bittersweet bliss that is first love.

It could’ve been so good; there were flashes of brilliance, sure. But they were quickly dulled by half-formed characters who deceptively sounded larger than life. Moreover, these characters easily fit in the pages of a John Green novel: quick-witted, obnoxiously smart however physically flawed. But the story took forever to come to life, and I wouldn’t have minded it if the book offered more.

Grace Town is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

Truthfully, readers don’t really get to know Grace Town. Her past defined her as a character and we don’t see anything else but her visceral, all-encompassing grief. She didn’t apologize for not being able to give more of herself or her heart to Henry, and because Henry was so smitten, he didn’t ask for what he deserved. If you haven’t read this book, be warned that this is a disastrous kind of love story. Though, that’s hardly a spoiler since it said so on the back of the book.

On the other hand, Henry narrating the book might be the reason why we don’t get to know Grace. Grief and debilitating guilt are all we know about her. But it’s really tough to connect to a grieving character when we don’t their history. And that is what I struggled the most about Our Chemical Hearts. I think I spent most of the time waiting for the story to develop. The majority of the book focused on Henry and his inexplicable attraction to Grace. He was drawn by her enigma and the more she kept him at arm’s length, the harder it was for him to resist. Overall, this was not an insightful book about grief. I think it would be more effective if this was told in Grace’s perspective.

Susan Ee has set a standard for books about these mythical creatures. There are only a couple that I could think of that was as good or better ( Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor and The Rephaim series by Paula Weston). She came into the YA scene with such a splash that we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. It was like the opening of the first book when Pennryn saw a floating feather that signals the coming doom of time. Though Susan’s entrance was not quite that traumatic. She just took us all by surprise, that’s all.

WORLD AFTER

The second book to Angelfall finds Pennryn dead …for a time. Then she woke up to the horror of those people in the truck that rescued her including her mother. After a few halting explanations, everyone accepted her explanation of a temporary paralysis. They find themselves in a rebel hub bent on taking back humanity from the clutches of the angels. The humans didn’t take well to Paige’s appearance and new monstrosity. When she ran away after the humans tried to kill her, Penn has no choice but to search for her. In the meantime, Raffe continues his search for his angel wings. Because without his wings, he won’t be able to get back into the fold of righteous army that will help Pennryn and the humans take back their world.

Sadly, my interest in this series waned a bit as I was reading this sequel. Part of the problem was I couldn’t find the same love and enthusiasm as I had with the first book. It’s been five years since I read Angelfall. And I would like to think that I’ve shed some of my fangirl tendencies since then. I was completely in love with the idea of an angel-human romance at the time. So I thought that once I started reading Pennryn and Raffe’s reunion, things will go back to normal. It did not. Because our star-crossed couple was separated for the better part of this novel. Still, Susan Ee’s talent for conceptualizing a recently destroyed world consistently shone through.

END OF DAYS

The conclusion of this series was meant to be epic. And Holy Hannah, was it ever! We find Pennryn and Raffe looking for a way to reverse whatever procedure was done to Raffe and Paige. In this book, we find out more about the real reason why the angels invaded Earth and how. Raffe’s past will also be revealed in such a way that will bring forth more problems for both angels and humans alike. Monsters unlike anything anyone has ever seen (not even angels) will be unleashed to humankind and the only way to stop them is for Raffe to band with the Pit Lord and his army of Consumed.

This was heart-palpitating action from the get go. It’s exactly how I wanted series-enders to be. The romance throughout the series was a slow burn to begin with, but in this conclusion, I felt like it reached a satisfying crescendo that will make Pennryn’s and Raffe’s fans happy. In the end, I was not invested at all. Not because I stopped being a fan, but because this book was so good that the romance took a backseat to everything that happened.

IN RETROSPECT

Susan Ee knows how to cast a line and reel her fans in. The breathtaking, albeit, destroyed world was something out of a realistic nightmare. The romance is sexy in a subtle way; and the monsters, truly out of this world. Postponing the release of books 2 and 3 only added to the already electrifying furor surrounding these books. So in every aspect, she’s something short of brilliant. I can’t wait to see what she’ll have in store for us in the future.

Winter by Marissa Meyer

And so this is the end. The end of a series that I’ve followed and loved since the first book came out. Books that I’ve loved progressively so with each instalment and with whom I’ve realised that yes, I still can enjoy fairy tales. It’s hard to say goodbye, but all good things must come to an end.

MEYER IS A MONSTER

A brilliant one – with a propensity for torturing her readers to the point of madness that we had no choice but to assume the foetal position and suck our thumbs. I know I did. Because I kid you not, that’s how I felt for about 95% of this 800-page beast. Every page had the potential for heartache due to unimaginable horrors in store for our beloved characters. The suspense on whether or not Cinder will succeed in her quest to overthrow Levana only amped up the anxiety level to unbearable heights. She and her cohorts have had to work extra hard to convince the people from the outer sectors to join in her revolution, but it’s such a difficult thing to do considering how far-reaching Levana’s and her Thaumaturge’s powers were. Besides the fact that the people of Luna were a defeated and demoralised lot, I remained unconvinced that Levana would, could be defeated.

TOO MUCH, YET NOT ENOUGH

Because this last book was supposed to be about Princess Winter, it was both a disappointment and a relief to find that only about a significant amount of this epic instalment was about her story. Not as much as I originally expected it to be, anyway. Winter’s is a sad story arch. Because she’d suppressed her powers of persuasion, her mind was slowly deteriorating into madness. Meyer gave Snow White justice. From the time her Hunstman (Jacin) was ordered to kill her, to when she found kinship amongst the wolves (the dwarves), right up to when Levana impersonated herself to give her a form of poison, Marissa threaded Winter’s story so flawlessly into this final instalment.

Though it may feel like the 800 pages was a bit long, I promise you that you will not notice the passing of time. In some instances, I felt like I was not reading fast enough or I read it too fast that I had to go back. In the end, and as in most cases where you’ve waited so long for a book, you’ll be warring with your emotions. Mostly, you’ll come to an unresolved conclusion on whether you wanted more or you’ve had enough.

IN RETROSPECT

I understand now why we had to wait so long for this instalment. The amount of plotting and replotting required to give birth to this book must’ve cost her blood, sweat and tears. I know it’s not perfect – no book ever is. But this is pretty much close to perfection. You know that blinding disorientation you feel after leaving the theatre? That’s how I felt after closing this book. A little dazed, a little unsure of how to go on about my mundane life.

Maggie Sanders might be blind, but she won’t invite anyone to her pity party. Ever since losing her sight six months ago, Maggie’s rebellious streak has taken on a life of its own, culminating with an elaborate school prank. Maggie called it genius. The judge called it illegal.

Now Maggie has a probation officer. But she isn’t interested in rehabilitation, not when she’s still mourning the loss of her professional-soccer dreams, and furious at her so-called friends, who lost interest in her as soon as she could no longer lead the team to victory.

Then Maggie’s whole world is turned upside down. Somehow, incredibly, she can see again. But only one person: Ben, a precocious ten-year-old unlike anyone she’s ever met. Ben’s life isn’t easy, but he doesn’t see limits, only possibilities. After awhile, Maggie starts to realize that losing her sight doesn’t have to mean losing everything she dreamed of. Even if what she’s currently dreaming of is Mason Milton, the infuriatingly attractive lead singer of Maggie’s new favorite band, who just happens to be Ben’s brother.

But when she learns the real reason she can see Ben, Maggie must find the courage to face a once-unimaginable future… before she loses everything she has grown to love.

It’s tough to review a book that I sort of like and sort of didn’t like. When I can’t reconcile how I really feel for it that I’m left precariously straddling that line. The One Thing could’ve been so good. But I felt that its two major flaws are simply insurmountable that I can’t give it a rating higher than 3 stars.

The summary succinctly gives you the bulk of the plot. Maggie was once a rising soccer star before she went blind. She had meningitis. Ever since then, she’d pretty much shut out the world and wallowed in self-pity and misery. Upon meeting 10-year old, Ben, however, she realizes she can see. But only Ben and his immediate surroundings. Like a halo of light. Ben, who has been in crutches his whole life because he was born with spina bifida.

Hanging out with Ben has some benefits, to be sure. For one, he’s funny, smart and the seeing thing is a bonus. Also, Ben’s brother just happens to be the lead singer of her favourite band, Loose Cannons. But Mason Milton wouldn’t give her the time of day. He thinks she’s faking her “blindness”. He thinks she’s taking advantage of his younger brother, and that she’s nothing but a rabid fan who’s using Ben to get to him. He’s wrong, of course. Maggie only ever wanted to feel like normal again and the precocious Ben gives her a semblance of that.

There is a reason why she can only see Ben and not the rest of the world. For Maggie, the gravity of that reason may be just as difficult to accept as the loss of the life she used to have.

I’m the type of reader who accepts any unimaginable scenarios in fiction. I don’t care how far-reaching the plots are. If you make it believable, I’ll read it. After reading this book, I found out that yes, I do have a limit. And Maggie’s ability to see certain people without biological or medical relevance just didn’t cut it.

I also couldn’t buy into the eventual romance between Mason and Maggie. Mason has that arrogance that was not at all endearing, to be honest. I understand that he’s protective of his brother, but his attitude became intolerable too fast. Their relationship just didn’t work for me. I thought they would’ve been better off as friends who had Ben in common. I think the problem is that there wasn’t enough time for their relationship to develop. Maggie spent a lot of time with Ben, dodging her therapist, and harbouring hurt feelings toward her parents. I get so frustrated with people who can’t express their feelings easily. And Maggie did a lot of suppressing hers that it became too much for me at times.

Over all, this book has been getting so much love. I feel like such a schmuck for not loving it just as much. I think that if you can forgive the things that makes the plot a bit ridiculous, then you might just enjoy this book.

Somewhere along the way, this book’s purpose got lost in the writer’s attempt to channel his inner teen. Somewhere along the way, I got distracted by Elle Goulding’s incessant Eeeeeh eeeeee eeee (don’t ask). Nothing much happened in Anything Could Happen. Besides the predictability of the outcome, this book was not as emotionally gripping as what you would expect from one that tackles such a socially relevant and important subject.

The plot meandered quite a bit. In an attempt to give Tretch more layers, it only prolonged what was an otherwise straight-forward plot. To be honest, this book was over by the halfway mark, because his lamentations about coming out to his family and friends didn’t really have a basis. I’m not trivializing it, because I can only imagine how difficult that must be. He just wasn’t a convincing character. It was not a good representation of what teens with the same issues go through. In fact, I’ll even go so far as to say, his fear of coming out was manufactured. As bad as that may sound, that’s how I perceived the character to be.

Also, there are family dramas that didn’t really do much to help the plot progression nor garner empathy/sympathy. What’s more, the family drama stole the limelight from the intended real issue (Tretch’s struggle with his sexuality). Which is unfortunate, because you can see flashes of Will Walton’s almost brilliant writing buried in the rubble of teen angst.

I don’t really know why it took me so long to read this book. Every time I walk by my bookshelves and see it, I kept having one of those facepalm moment when I’ll try to make a mental note to finally pick it up. Had I known the incredible high I’ll experience during and after reading this book, I’d have read it sooner than twenty months after its release. Why didn’t I listen to y’all? To be honest, I wasn’t going to write a review for this. I was just going to feature it in my Photo Vomit post (yes, I loved it so much, I took a bunch of pictures of it!).

It’s just difficult to express my love for this book. So hard to write down the words of all the whys. The easy way to do it, is to advise you that you should believe the majority of those people who gave this book the highest rating. It is all that and then some.

Hello, my name is Cath and I’m a Simon & Baz shipper.

(I’ve become one, too, for that matter. )Twins, Cath and Wren have always been each other’s best friend since they were born. But college life is about to change the dynamics whether Cath likes it or not. Wren wants to branch out and meet new people, while Cath is satisfied with remaining who she’s always been and who she’s with all her life. She’s an introvert who finds solace in a fandom that she’s become a celebrity without being in the limelight. She finds comfort in books, and the things that are familiar.

Cath knew that she can’t survive College life living inside the dorm with her roommate and her boy-shadow. Armed with a year’s supply of peanut butter, granola bars and the fictional world she borrowed, Cath is determined to try, anyway.

I think one of the reasons why this book is so popular and well-received is because it connected with a lot of us. She’s given as a character that resonated with us. I know it brought back memories of those years when I used to write fan fiction (nope, not going to tell you which fandom. Ha!) Cath was very insecure and maybe a little bit of a pushover at first. But it’s not hard not to accept all her frailties because I got her. She’s also not easy to get to know because she’s closed off and she has a hard time trusting anyone. Which is understandable considering what happened with her mother.

Levi, the boy for the rest of us.

In a literary world full of handsome boys, Levi is probably one of those characters that was not cut from the same cloth. He’s not perfectly good looking; he’s got a learning disability. But he makes up for it by being the most charming boy ever to walk the pages of a book.

I was confused by his relationship with Cath’s roommate initially, but Rowell’s uncanny ability to create unpredictable story arches saves the day.

Rainbow Rowell is for real, yo.

Honest-to-goodness goddess, y’all. I can’t say enough about how brilliant this woman is. She doesn’t write pretty proses ala Jandy Nelson, but her story lines consume me every time I read her book (except for Attachments – wasn’t a fan of that one). She almost never fails to create incredible characters and immersive stories. But one of the best things about this book is how credible Cath is as a writer. I’ve read a few books wherein the character was one, but not of them could light a candle to Cath. Not one of them as convincing, and that’s all thanks to Rowell’s illustrious prowess.

Fangirl is all about a lot of us, who’d become uncomfortable to the point of being scared at one point in our lives. It’s about embracing the fact that we can’t all remain stagnant. Life is about constant motion whether we like it or not. And that’s what I’m taking away from this book…and ultimate love for this author.

Sometimes, my reading preference is highly irregular and mostly, sporadic. A mystery/suspense book like this has to catch me on a good day; a day when I’m in need of something that elevates my heart rate without moving off the couch. This book certainly had its moments. But it wasn’t nearly as suspenseful as the first two books. Regardless, it was still a satisfactory instalment featuring Nick. He was every bit as mysterious and cranky as I remembered him to be: troublemaker, brusque and slightly unhinged.

The Girl in His Past

(Isn’t there always?) She haunts him in his dreams. A girl he was supposed to kill execution-style in the woods but one that he ended up saving. But due to the aftereffects of the experiments done on him by the branch, he wasn’t sure if he did, in fact, save her. Now, he can’t get her out of his mind. But as the story moves along, pieces become clearer. And the town where he ended up holds more secrets of his past life that he was not willing to face. In the grand scheme of things, he might not have a choice anyway.

The Boy in Her Past

There’s a lot of Elizabeth’s past she can’t remember. Most specifically of that time following her abduction. Every night, she dreams of Gabriel. How he saved her; his eyes and his smell. But she’s ready to move on. She’s found a life after a traumatizing event in her life. She’s surrounded by friends, and a new mother figure who treats her as her own. She spends her time making perfume. Smell is how she associates a person or a memory. When Gabriel shows up in her home town, the recognition and connection was instantaneous. They each hold the key to unlocking certain events in their pasts. But what else would they uncover as they try to piece together their broken lives?

Spoilers Ahead

I feel like this book was an extended novella. The major plot didn’t really move other than yet again, they were unable to bring down the Branch. I don’t know how many more books are coming, but if you’re expecting to see the end of Riley, you’ll be sorely disappointed. He is like Jason Vorhees or Mike Myers. You just can’t kill him.

I can’t believe how many fans of this series expected the SS Anna/Nick ship to set sail into the yonder. I mean, really?! Why? I can’t see Anna with anyone else other than Sam. I did want Nick to have his HEA, but really, HEAs are impossible until they get rid of Riley. He deserves his romance, sure. Though Elizabeth, was a bit of a Mary Sue at first, she actually grew on me in the end. I think her quiet disposition matches perfectly well with Nick’s intensity.

We learned a bit more of exactly what kind of experiments they were doing to the kids. Some sort of genetic enhancement program that turns them into the perfect soldiers: fearless, skilled and who are basically super humans. Here, we find out that there are kids who can regenerate cells; they heal fast and are difficult to kill (hence, the title). I think this is the part where it felt like an addendum to the plot in the interest of extending the series. The addition didn’t feel awkward per se, but it does feel like an afterthought considering the arch wasn’t introduced in the first two books.

Three for Three

So far, this series is one of those rare ones that I consistently enjoy. It’s the perfect mix of suspense, romance and action for someone like me who can only stomach a bit of everything in one book. It is unfortunate that this series is not getting much love, but if you’re a fan of stories featuring genetically-altered teens made to be super soldiers, this series is worth a look-see, at least.

Reality is a scary master. That’s why some people resort to drugs because it’s easier to ignore its demands sometimes. But for some, reality is a different beast altogether. It becomes unreliable, frightening and deceiving. Such is the life of those suffering from schizophrenia.

Made You Up was a light-hearted, kind-hearted story about a teen suffering from this disorder. Her story is a bit of a ride. Because of Zappia’s compelling/very convincing writing, the reader will feel as if they are losing their minds along with her. Some would have a difficult time discerning what was real and what was a product of her “chemically-imbalanced” mind. Things, places, people become somewhat capricious. One particular person in her life left me with goosebumps once it was revealed they were not real at all. For a second, I thought I was reading a ghost story. And even after all that, she still keeps seeing this person.

You would never find a more unreliable narrator than Alex. Not because it’s a character flaw, but because it’s the nature of her disease. I don’t think I’ve read a book in YA tackling paranoid schizophrenia, but Zappia’s account is a great introduction, I thought. Alex describes every thing she sees and feels that the readers would know exactly what it’s like to go through life thinking she’s in constant peril. But she’s learning; she wants to live independently.

So she’s careful. She does everything to make sure that no one would ever know why she is the way she is (she sniffs her food for poison; she looks everywhere for bad guys lurking in the dark corners and alleys). She’s forever suspicious of people. And by taking pictures of things she thought to be a temporary product of her overactive imagination, she was able to detect what was real and what was not – on most good days, that is. I love the way Francesca created Alex. She’s so real; her disease is real. And yet somehow, there’s this whimsical persona that I just can’t help but love.

This book is an instant favourite of mine. ALL TIME favourite. You will cry. You will laugh. You will go, “holy shiiiite”. Basically, this book will put you through an entire list of feelings. But you will love this book. It was different, candid, heartbreaking, but hopeful. Very hopeful in a non-sappy way. You will adore the characters; you will smile at the sweetness of the romance between two characters who are so awkwardly perfect for each other. They are everything. This book is everything.

I have been in such a terrible roll of contemporary suck-fest lately. Usually, it’s the genre I run to whenever I feel the tell-tale bump of a reading slump coming on. The last couple of tries left me feeling disillusioned, and wondering what I ever liked in the genre to begin with.

And then this book came long.

Things We Know By Heart is a thought-provoking book about a person’s willingness to cross a line for the sake of closure. Truthfully, I’ve never even given a thought to what I would do in Quinn’s situation. I don’t know if I’d risk being labeled a stalker by insinuating myself into another person’s life because I wanted to know, had to know.

I’m sure you’ve read quite a few loved-loved reviews for this book. I’m sure they told you that it left its readers in a soggy mess. I’m sure they all told you it’s a heart-wrenching read. And they would be right. It was all those.

It gave me an insight into what it’s like to deal with the knowledge that a part or parts of the person they loved who’d died still lived in another: sight, liver, kidney, heart. It’s easier to deal with the first three. The last one is a bit more difficult. Imagine for a moment that your partner’s heart continues to beat in another’s body. Wouldn’t you question whether or not it would beat the way you remember how it sounds?

So is the heart really a muscle that has the capacity to retain its memories long after a person has passed? It is an interesting question, but this book being fictional is probably not a good source to get an answer. You’re better off reading Science and Medical research journals. It’s at least thoughtful and it does make its readers consider that possibility.

I’ve always thought that Jessi Kirby is quite adept in giving us well-rounded, realistic characters. It couldn’t be more true in Quinn’s and Colton’s respective situations. Quinn’s grief was palpable, understandable. Readers will feel how heavy it weighs her down. And Colton’s difficulty in accepting his gift was understandable. I was able to empathize with both; I understood why Quinn temporarily forgot the moral implications of her actions. I got why Colton was unable to deal with the fact that someone had to die in order for him to live. That kind of gift is both a blessing and a curse.

Things We Know by Heart was a lovely read that didn’t pretend to know what its talking about. It didn’t tell you that sure, the heart is like a brain that can somehow retain memories. You might be led into believing that, but you have to remember that the book is fictional. It’s hard to explain love. Lust is much simpler. There are a lot more involved for a person to truly recognized it’s love staring at them in the face. My point is, when Colton met Quinn the first time, there wasn’t an instant recognition or even remembrance that made his heart quiver to a healthy degree. Unless I missed it altogether. In the end, Colton and Quinn had to get over their own guilt to have a fighting chance at a relationship.